Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck
, otherwise known as , is a small, good-natured, childlike Arrancar. She lives in the desert of Hueco Mundo with her adoptive brothers, Dondochakka Bilstin and Pesche Guatiche, and their pet, Bawabawa. She is also the former tercera (3rd) Espada, and Pesche and Dondochakka were her fraccion. Appearance Nel is a female arrancar that has light green hair in the manga, but in the anime she has blue hair with a slight green tint, a large scar coming down from her forehead to her nose, larger than average incisors, and a crimson line that stretches horizontally across her face right below her eyes. The remains of her hollow mask make up a cartoonish skull on the top of her head. A crack runs along the left side of the mask and four of the teeth on it are broken off. It is currently unknown where her hollow hole is. Her clothing consists of a simple green gown. Her previous form is that of a big-breasted, full-figured woman comparable to Rangiku Matsumoto (that appears to be in between her late teens to mid-twenties), with longer hair but otherwise similar features. Her skull mask changes slightly, its features appearing sharper and less cartoonish with a pair of curved horns, while her hollow hole is still hidden from view. A large "3" is tattooed on her back, indicating that she was the former 3rd Espada. Personality Nel's appearance is in stark contrast to her vocabulary, which contains a number of bizarre phrases and words one wouldn't expect such a small child to know, such as calling her uvula a "throat penis" and referring to herself as a masochist. Ichigo Kurosaki assumes her hollow companions are responsible for this. Nel and her companions also represent oddities among hollows, though most hollows are evil, Nel actually fears shinigami, assuming they are in fact the evil ones. In spite of this, she develops an attachment to Ichigo and follows him into Las Noches. During their super sentai intro she prefers the name "Thieves: Nel-Don-Pe". She also seems to speak with a lisp in her child form, frequently pronouncing "S"s as "T"s. As Neliel, she is much more mature, composed, logical, sophisticated, and intelligent than her child form. She is also relatively level-headed in terms of how to fight, stating that if one's excuse for a battle is to fight out of hatred, prejudice, or simple competition, as Nnoitra does, then it is merely instinctual and animalistic, and that it makes the challenger look "childish", "unworthy", and "not much of a warrior", though Neliel has proven during her last few minutes as a full-fledged Espada, that it is acceptable when it involves vengeance. Unlike many of the arrancar, Neliel is somewhat pacifistic, and according to her fracción, has despised engaging in combat even when she was still among (one of the highest) Espada ranks, unless it involves self-defense and protecting those dear to her heart; it is for this reason that Pesche and Dondochakka decided to simply be content with her child form and banished themselves from Las Noches. Excluding Stark, Grimmjow, Halibel, and Ulquiorra, Neliel seems to be the most honorable member of the Espada; she will refuse to finish off weaker or incapacitated opponents, and will stop fighting them once they've been disabled or incapacitated. Despite this, she's rather merciless toward her opponents, and won't hesitate to kill them once it's been made clear that they'll lose. As witnessed during her numerous fights with Nnoitra, Neliel's shown to be relatively calm and silent when fighting, only speaking when spoken to, a rather uncommon trait among most arrancar. Neliel's also shown to be a loyal, respectful, and trustworthy warrior, who will diligently follow the orders of her commander, provided said commander has proven his worth. She's also knowledgeable, analytical, easygoing, fairly compassionate (usually towards her friends), humorous in her own right, and exhibits a cheerful, energetic demeanor when off-duty. Although having grown up physically, she somehow retains her child-like affection over Ichigo, best-shown when she unexpectedly bear-hugged him after attacking Nnoitra without realizing that Ichigo was losing consciousness (although the anime's flashback of Nel's accident suggested that she was always somewhat childish outside of combat). History Nel Tu was once an Espada in Aizen's army and held the rank of 3rd Espada. During her time as the 3rd she would constantly be challenged by Nnoitra Jiruga to fights to prove that males are stronger than females. Nel would prove victorious in every duel. Later Nnoitra would team up with Szayel Aporro Granz (who was not an espada at the time) to perform a sneak attack on Nel. Nnoitra ripped off the masks of her two fraccions Pesche and Dondochakka, apparently an unspeakable act among the Arrancar. When Nel charged at him in a rage -though the Nnoitra she was seeing was actually an illusion created by Szayel Aporro-, the real Nnoitra used this distraction to attack her from behind, landing a blow directly to the mask on her head. The attack itself (from Nnoitra) broke off part of her mask, scarring her forehead and leaving her unconscious. He threw her and her fraccions out of Las Noches so that he could increase his power by the time she returned, but was disappointed to find that she had reverted into a child. Afterward, Pesche and Dondochakka vowed that they would protect this newly weakened Nel at any cost. They took the roles of her playful older brothers, never revealing to her their true identities or her own identity for fear of her memories coming back: according to Pesche, this is because she had always hated fighting, and in her child form she was spared from it. Synopsis Hueco Mundo arc After Ichigo, Chad, and Uryū Ishida enter Hueco Mundo to save Orihime Inoue, they come across what looks to be a young human chased by three hollows. After Ichigo attacks the three, it is revealed that the 'human' is actually an arrancar named Nel Tu; the hollows are her two brothers and their pet. After becoming friends (albeit Nel and her companions becoming momentarily panicky upon learning Ichigo's a shinigami), the expanded group travels to the wall of Las Noches, where they are attacked by a sand-based hollow, Lunuganga. The hollow is immune to their attacks, but the group is saved by Renji and Rukia, the latter of which freezes Lunaganga in a circle of ice. Ichigo and his group break into Las Noches and split into five directions, leaving Nel and her brothers behind. The siblings decide to follow Ichigo but get lost. Nel is the only one who catches up to Ichigo, arriving just in time to be confronted by Dordonii Alessandro Del Socacchio, a Privaron Espada with a number of #103. When Dordonii tries to fire a cero blast at Ichigo, Nel steps in, absorbing the blast and firing it back. Enraged, Dordonii attacks Nel, who is then saved by Ichigo, now using his Hollow powers and defeats him. Dordonni later wakes up to a drooling Nel who is using her saliva to heal his wounds. During her trip further into Las Noches with Ichigo, she witnesses his clashes with Ulquiorra Schiffer, the 4th Espada and Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, the 6th Espada. After Ichigo finishes off Grimmjow they are suddenly attacked by none other than Noitra Jiruga himself. vs. Neliel.]] After his Fracción, Tesla finds her hidding behind a rock, Nnoitra identifies Nel as a former Espada during his battle with Ichigo, one who he found to be very annoying. Nel denies this accusation heavily as Nnoitra attacks Ichigo again. The fight ensues with Nnoitra dominating a severely weakened Ichigo, culminating in him breaking Ichigo's wrist. Nel's concern causes her to spontaneously transform into her true form. From here, she goes on to reveal herself as the former 3rd Espada and effortlessly deals with Nnoitra. After using a double Cero blast against Nnoitra, Nel rushes to Ichigo and gives him a big bear hug as she would as a child. This causes him to go unconscious momentarily due to the pain of his injuries. Inoue tries to get her off since he passed out but this just causes her to hold him harder in fear for him. After this Nnoitra kicks his fraccion into a wall for letting go of Inoue in worry of him, then gets out of the rubble. Nel then decides to unleash her zanpakuto to finish him, coming at him at full power. Quickly Nnoitra is at her mercy, though fine with the situation as long as she kills him. She reverts back to her child form however, before she can defeat Nnoitra and is left at his mercy. (One reason behind this maybe due to her zanpakutō's release using up a lot of her spirit energy.) Laughing at this happening, he kicks her out of the way and tortures Ichigo now that their only savior was gone. She is soon healed by Orihime when Kenpachi Zaraki arrives to fight Tesla, then Nnoitra. It can be assumed she might have regained her memories yet again as she locked eyes with Nnoitra and says his name as he dies. Powers & Abilities Child Form Nel does not carry a Zanpakutō in her child form, but has the unique abilities listed below. Cero Doble: A unique ability to swallow enemy attacks and fire them back with a more powerful force exceeding that of the original hit, indicated by the eyes on her skull mask glowing. Although using it seems to exhausts her. Rudimentary Sonido: She is able to accelerate her movements with what seems to be a rudimentary form of Sonído. Healing Vomit: She also has the ability to heal others with her vomit (which has a similar appearance to saliva, leading to her believing so when as a child). Original Form In her original form, she carries a Zanpakutō. Despite her dislike of violence, as formerly the 3rd Rank of an earlier generation of Espada, Nel's battle capabilities are understandably greater than that of other arrancar outside of the said top ranks. In fact, despite Nnoitra's claim that the power levels of the current Espada surpasses the previous one and Nel's abilities had not fully recovered, his battle against Nel proved a losing one, and the only reason why he survived long enough (only to be cut down by Kenpachi later) was because Neliel kept holding back in the entire battle and she reverted to her child form in the middle of the battle. Expert Swordsmanship Specialist: Nel has plenty of experience at fighting being a former Espada, showing hardly any effort in her advanced use of swordsmanship. Her body flows elegantly when engaging in combat, so finely tuned that she can stop her attacks at a moments notice and subsequently execute lethal attacks with absolute precision. She easily defeated Nnoitra a number of times, who is a highly skilled swordsman in his own rite. However, she was not able to fight him on equal ground after three years passed (while she was kicked out of Las Noches), with Nnoitra training constantly in order to defeat her when she returns. Expert Hand-To-Hand Combatant: Even without the aid of her zanpakuto, Neliel has shown herself to be a quite powerful fighter. During her battle against Nnoitra, she was shown able to skillfully dodge and counter his attacks. She has also shown using her swordsmanship in conjunction with her hand-to-hand combat. Sonído Expert: Her speed is greatly increased as well, fitting with her former position and has repeatedly been able to sneak up on Nnoitra with great speed. Enhanced Strength: Her strength is greatly increased, fitting with her former position. With her great physical strength, Nel is capable of fending off attacks from even gigantic weapons like Nnoitra's or launch her opponent several meters away with a single punch. She is also capable of stopping Nnoitra's Cero barehanded. Vast Spiritual Power: Neliel has a grand amount of Spiritual Energy, powerful enough for her Fraccions to sense it from a large distance. Renji even stated that her spiritual power was close to Ichigo's, confusing the two for a moment. Cero: Like other Arrancar, she is able to fire a considerably powerful cero blast. She is seen firing it from her mouth. As a former 3rd Espada, she can also presumably use Gran Rey Cero and Cero Oscuro. Cero Doble: She retains her attack absorption ability in her original form, but now performs it with greater ease. According to Nnoitra, Nel's specialty is to absorb an incoming Cero and fire one of her own while returning it, thus creating a potent Cero Doble, (Spanish for "double zero"). While her child form severely limits her Arrancar powers, she is still powerful enough to absorb and redirect a Cero blast from a Privaron Espada-class Arrancar in its released form, though the effort seems to tire her immediately. In her original form, the force(s) of the Cero Doble is augmented greatly, owing to the fact that she rebounds the attack while blending it with her own cero, drastically increasing its power, as befits the former third Espada. Hierro: Nel Tu, while in her original form, has Hierro befitting the strength of an Espada. It is strong enough to allow Nel to counter Nnoitra's blade with a kick, showing no signs of injury. Zanpakutō : her Zanpakutō has a green sheath and a hilt shaped like two crescent moons joined together at each other's back (somewhat similar to Nnoitra's). *'Resurrección': its release command is . In her new form, Nel takes the form of a green (white in the anime) ibex-like centaur, with longer curved horns, armor over her shoulders and hands, and a thick tail. In the anime, her hollow mask also extends slightly, framing the sides of her face, particularly the cheeks. Gamuza itself transforms into a double-ended lance,Bleach manga; chapter 296, pages 4-5 making it one of the few known weapon-based Arrancar Zanpakutō in existence (the releases of most Arrancar de-materializes their weapons upon their true forms being unleashed), much like a Shinigami's Shikai. All these features grant her the overall appearance of a medieval knight or a jouster. :Resurrección Special Ability: The only attack she has used in this form so far is Lanzador Verde. The full extent of Gamuza's abilities has probably yet to be seen. ::Enhanced Strength: While in her released form, her might increases further. :: . Nel throws her lance at her opponent with extreme speed and it drills into her enemy, inflicting piercing damage. Fracción thumb|190px|left|Nel and her fracción during their super sentai-style intro is a large, spotted humanoid hollow with a tiki mask and compound eyes. He appears to speak with a yakuza-style accent and is fairly tame in comparison to other hollows. Despite his menacing appearance, he is prone to tear-filled outbursts at the slightest provocation, usually when he's worried about something. is a seemingly harmless, humanoid Arrancar whose mask resembles an insectoid head with a large pair of mandibles. He wears an eyepatch and a loincloth. His Hollow hole is slightly lower than normal, positioned near his stomach instead of his chest. He and Dondochakka were once Nel Tu's Fracción, but had their masks forcibly removed by Nnoitra Jiruga and Szayel Aporro Granz, and were left for dead with Nel. After realizing that their master had reverted to a defenseless child, he and Dondochakka pledged to protect her. According to Pesche, they hid their true identities from Nel because they feared not doing so might cause her memories to come back. Neither of them wanted this, because Neliel strongly disliked fighting, and in her child form she would no longer have to fight. He and Dondochakka spent the following time traveling around Hueco Mundo, keeping Nel amused with games like eternal tag, while still training (probably without her knowledge) to better protect her. is a giant, eel-like hollow whose mask consists of a simple plate on his head with a pair of horns. Actually, he's a parasite that Dondochakka keeps inside him if not out, giving him a particular Fraccion-state. He acts as both a pet and transportation for Pesche, Dondochakka, and Nel Tu. Bawabawa tends to get upset for not being included in the group's super sentai-styled introduction sequences. Quotes *a child, talking to Rukia "What's your welationship with Itsygo?" *"Because...you are weaker than I." * "It will be over soon" Trivia *To date in the manga, Neliel is the highest ranked Espada to have released her Zanpakutō, albeit a former Espada. *Interestingly, both Neliel and Halibel were the only female Espada in their generation, both coincidentally holding the rank of Tercera, and being Espadas who have shown to care about their Fraccion. * Neliel was an Espada at the same time Szayel was demoted from the Espada. * Neliel is one of the only Arrancar to retain a type of sword after her Resurrección. She shares this trait with Mila-Rose, Ulquiorra Schiffer, Aaroniero Arruruerie, Nnoitra Jiruga and Rudobōn. References Navigation Category:Characters Category:Arrancar Category:Espada Category:Female